Stress and the Microbiome – Lifestyle Medicine
lifestylemedicine.stanford.edu
  • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
    81·
    2 days ago

    Im not a neuroscientist nor endocrinologist but i dont think it’s as simple as, your gut producing serotonin which travels to your brain and makes you happy.

    I just googled this and found a pretty direct rebuttal:

    The gut-brain axis is a bidirectional communication network that links the enteric and central nervous systems. This network is not only anatomical, but it extends to include endocrine, humoral, metabolic, and immune routes of communication as well. The autonomic nervous system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and nerves within the gastrointestinal tract, all link the gut and the brain, allowing the brain to influence intestinal activities, including activity of functional immune effector cells; and the gut to influence mood, cognition, and mental health.

    pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6469458/

    As i said, I dont really know anything about this. However, there seems to be a large body of research supporting this hypothesis.

    • Caveman@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 days ago

      That’s true, the gut and the brain are tightly linked and are in constant communication with each other, an obvious example is hunger for example.

      I felt the need to comment this because serotonin and dopamine produced in the gut have completely different functions from the dopamine and serotonin in the brain. On top of that the body keeps those completely separate with the blood brain barrier so it can regulate those different functions individually.

      The gut does play a part in tryptophan production and extraction which passes the blood brain barrier and the brain uses to make serotonin so the gut does affect serotonin levels. But that’s just “eat healthy, feel good” type of stuff.

      I’m just not a fan of oversimplified version of this where people say “90-95% of serotonin is made in the gut, serotonin is the feel good hormone so gut affects happiness”. I mean, most people are aware that what you eat affects your mood but saying the gut is responsible for producing the hormones for the brain is just wrong when talking about dopamine and serotonin.

      • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        That’s a fair clarification and I’ll happily admit I was in the “most of your serotonin is made in your gut” camp.

      • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
        5·
        2 days ago

        Actually I use a self hosted instance of searxng which pulls results from a bunch of different engines.

        You should… avoid starting sentences with “you should” because it’s irritating. Universally.

          • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            As im sure you’re aware the g word is commonly used as a verb meaning “search”.

            I couldn’t care less how you feel about its use in this way.

            • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              1·
              20 hours ago

              I’m just a third party observer, dude, I’ve got no skin in this game. I’m just pointing out that it’s perfectly reasonable for someone to think you used google because you literally just said that you did.